MisJiF wrote:If it has 6264 RAM chips on it, it will be a sideways RAM board. This can be used to load ROM images (files) into and is really useful as you don't need to replace a physical ROM everytime you want to run a different peice of ROM software. The switch is the write protect switch as some ROM images try to write back to themselves. They will not work if they detect they are in sideways RAM instead of a read only IC. Open the switch, load the ROM image and close the switch. This stops write backs and makes the ROM image think it's an actual ROM.

BBC PSUs are fiddly, but not too hard to fix and most issues are already documented.

Thanks Mike, I picked up replacement capacitors today and will fix the PSU tonight (hopefully) - then I can see how this thing works! Exciting.

We did have one of these at my school, but we were too busy hacking around inside Apple IIs to even give it a chance. Sad. Look far more advanced than the Apple II. I'm actually very impressed with the hardware for 1981.

The BBC Lives! and Stairway to Hell are bound to have loader programs for ther ROMs as well as the ROM image files themselves.Sprow also has one called ROMLOAD but I've never tried it:http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/bbconly.htm

Some games use the extra memory too for an exhanced experience. Repton 3, Elite and Strykers Run are 3 I can think of.